Hey guys, how are you going? It's Sam here from Core Electronics, and today we're going to be taking a look at the different Teensy boards, the different models, what's the differences between them, some of the features, some of the specs, and which one's going to be right for your project.

Now if you're here wondering what is Teensy, I don't know what you're talking about, then check out our what is Teensy tutorial, it'll run you through the basics of what these awesome fantastic boards are and you know a few things you can do with them. But today we're just going to be taking a look at the four different models of Teensy that we have available as the current gen models.

So we've got the Teensy LC, we've got the Teensy 3.2 and then the Teensy 3.6. Now there's actually a 3.5 as well but the 3.5 and the 3.6 are exactly the same board. Appearances wise most of the specs are pretty much the same, they've just got a slightly different chip there, both running ARM Cortex architecture but a few slight sort of performance differences but the exact same looking board.

So let's start with the Teensy LC. Now we call this guy the junior member of the Teensy family but that's probably underselling it a bit because it's still an awesome board. For $24 you get an ARM Cortex processor, an MO plus processor I think it is, running at 48 megahertz. Awesome. 27 in out pins, all broken out onto headers here. You've got 8k of flash, 62k of flash, 8k of RAM kilobytes. Now the pin voltage on the LC is 3.3 volts.

So the 3.2 and the 3.5 are 5 volt compatible which means their system runs on 3.3 volts but you know so they can't output 5 volts but if you accidentally input 5 volts to one of the pins it's not going to destroy it, it's not going to damage your chip which is kind of cool. It's a good safety feature if you're not used to working with 3.3 volt devices but the Teensy is a bit more of a low-cost model, doesn't have that functionality but still huge amount of horsepower in one of these guys.

Now the 3.2 shares a pretty similar form factor as the LC. In fact I'll try and put them next to each other. So they're actually the same length and the same sort of pin layout but you can see underneath the 3.2 has some additional surface mount pads here so you can connect like a surface mount male header, like a double sided one there if you like and then you've also got some extra on both boards some extra through-hole pins here for extra male headers or things like that. Super breadboard friendly with stacks of IO pins but 3.2 brings in a bump to 96 MHz for the operating speed which is awesome. The clock speed is huge on a board this size. You've got a bit of a spec bump as well for the storage so you've got 64k of flash that's heaps for plenty of projects, sorry 64k of RAM, 256k of flash storage, 34 GPIO pins, 24 are broken out onto the other male headers on the side, 2k of EEPROM versus the LC which only has 256 bytes of EEPROM and on board you've got a native serial port, you've got I2C, you've got CAN, you've got SPI, you've got UART ports, I think there's three TX and RX pin combinations on here which is awesome.

Now the 3.5, so exact same board as this guy here, is clocking some pretty powerful stuff. It's got an ARM Cortex-M4 processor clocked at 120 megahertz. Huge stuff for microcontroller. If you're wanting to do real-time processing with this, you know, triggering interrupts and events in real time without any other software abstraction like on, you know, say a Raspberry Pi or a Latte Panda or an operating system computer, then this guy is going to clock extremely well. As I said 120 megahertz, you've also got a bump to 192k of RAM, 512k of flash, 62 in-outs, that's huge, that is massive, that's about the same amount as your Arduino Mega.

The Teensy 3.6 microcontroller board offers impressive features that surpass its predecessors. It boasts native microSD card support and well-crafted libraries by Paul Stoffergen, eliminating the need to navigate hardware features manually. The board is compatible with the Arduino IDE and offers an array of hardware features, including 14 hardware timers, 20 PWM pins, and 25 analog inputs. Additionally, it features built-in USB connectivity, with a high-speed USB port reaching speeds of around 420 megabits per second.

The Teensy 3.6 also includes six hardware serial ports, as well as support for TX and RX pins, SPI, I2C, I2S, CAN bus, and Ethernet pins. Running at 180 megahertz, it provides substantial processing power at an affordable price point, making it an attractive option for various projects.

One of the key attractions of the Teensy platform is the extensive collection of libraries that seamlessly integrate with the Arduino platform. Users can also load their own hex files using the Teensy loader application and select the USB device type to suit their specific project requirements. This flexibility allows for the creation of diverse applications, such as MIDI controllers, flight simulator joypads, HID devices, keyboards, and audio-supported projects.

The Teensy 3.5 and 3.6 boards offer built-in audio pins for stereo audio support, and additional header boards can be added for expanded functionality. The decision between the various Teensy boards largely depends on the required processing resources and the number of in-out pins needed for a specific project. It's worth noting that port expanders can be added via serial buses, such as I2C or SPI, to further increase the number of in-out pins available.

Overall, the Teensy microcontroller boards, including the Teensy LC, Teensy 3.2, Teensy 3.5, and Teensy 3.6, offer extensive features at an affordable price, making them highly compatible with Arduino. For further guidance on setting up and utilizing these boards, users are encouraged to explore the tutorials and projects available.